INSIDE BASEBALL: Lugo's return may not unseat productive Lowrie

Sunday

Aug 17, 2008 at 12:25 AM

It looms. On Tuesday, Julio Lugo resumed baseball activities, taking grounders for the first time since his July 11 quad injury. On Sunday night, he'll travel with the team on its last three-city road trip of 2008.

JON COUTURE

It looms. On Tuesday, Julio Lugo resumed baseball activities, taking grounders for the first time since his July 11 quad injury. On Sunday night, he'll travel with the team on its last three-city road trip of 2008.

Jed Lowrie knows the day is coming when the man he replaced is game-ready again.

"You never want to see someone get hurt, but at the same time, it opened a door for me and it's an opportunity for me," he said on Friday. "I'm not trying to take anybody's job. I'm trying to be the best player I can be."

He may not be trying, but he might have done it. With Sox manager Terry Francona's history of standing by veterans, just that speaks volumes.

"You bring a young kid up to play, and you're basically hoping he makes the plays and knows how to play the game," Francona said. "His production's been off the charts."

And that's even before his defense, which has shown range comparable to his speedy counterpart without an error in 42 total games.

Since being recalled from Triple-A Pawtucket, predominantly batting seventh, Lowrie's hit .310 with 11 extra-base hits in 25 games. That's just three less than Lugo's 14 through 82 games.

Course, that'd probably be more shocking were the RBI totals not screaming it louder: Lowrie 29, Lugo — despite more than twice as many at-bats — 22.

"Being productive and having the opportunity to be productive right away, it makes it easier," Lowrie said, his toothy grin peeking through. "That's how you earn respect in this game. You've got to produce."

He absolutely wasn't saying Lugo hasn't been, but with what the 23-year-old has done, it's a point to be made.

"All of a sudden," Francona said, "it seems like he's getting a big hit every time he comes up and there seems to be men on base."

Agreed. Lowrie's batted with runners in scoring position in 32.9 percent of his plate appearances this season, getting nine shots with the bases loaded just since his July 12 recall. (He's 4-for-8 with a sac fly and 10 RBIs.)

That percentage — in part due to the small sample size _ is higher than all but three of his teammates: Kevin Cash (38.7 percent), Jason Bay (34.4 through 13 games in Boston) and Lugo (33.9).

How does Boston's Opening Day shortstop compare? The 22 RBIs in 261 at-bats, however, say a mouthful. Lugo is batting .319 this season with the bases empty, trailing only AL batting leader Dustin Pedroia (.334) among Sox regulars.

With runners in scoring position, he's a Boston-worst .139, with a lone extra-base hit and 20 RBIs in 104 plate appearances. Glaring numbers, even if Lowrie wasn't making the most of his playing time.

"It's been a welcome addition," Francona said, "in maybe an area where you don't have a right to expect that much."

The manager hasn't been averse to sitting a vet, most notably last October, when he benched Coco Crisp for Jacoby Ellsbury starting in Game 6 against Cleveland.

The unlikelihood that Lowrie can maintain this pace, though, should make for an interesting decision in a couple weeks.

(Lugo has said he's shooting for a September return.)

"There's no question the first time I walked in here, there's a little bit of a sense of 'Wow,' I guess. You're in awe," Lowrie said. "But then when I step out onto the field, I know what I have to do. It doesn't matter who's playing around me or who I'm playing against. I know what I have to do."

The more he keeps doing it, the more interesting it figures to get.

Josh Hamilton won't be smashing any hallowed RBI records in 2008, but with 112 entering the weekend, he's maintaining a league lead he's held nearly all season.

How's he built it? Twenty-eight home runs haven't hurt, but more than that, he's been among baseball's most efficient hitters at driving runners home. Thus far, Hamilton's driven in 23.1 percent of those on base when he's batted.

The only player qualified for the batting title with a higher percentage? Kansas City's David DeJesus, at 23.8 percent, but with only 56 total RBIs.

Kevin Youkilis (17.7 percent) is the only Sox player in the MLB top 30, though three teammates have been better in limited time — Bay (23.9 with Boston), Lowrie (23.1) and David Ortiz (19.8).

(Ortiz is some 50 plate appearances short of batting title qualification, but should hit the 502 PA threshold — 3.1 per team game — if he stays healthy.)

Remember when, in the waning days of Manny Ramirez's Red Sox tenure, everyone started citing his more than five-second lopes to first base as though he were at the NFL Combine?

He's got company in Tampa's B.J. Upton, whom manager Joe Maddon pulled from Friday's win over Texas for failing to hustle on an inning-ending double play.

"5.33 (seconds) to first base," said Maddon, who let Upton head out to center field for the next half-inning before replacing him. "You see how we're playing right now. Everybody who watches us, you understand why we're in the position we're in right now and it's about continuous effort."

The average time to first base around the majors, according to Maddon, is 4.3 seconds. Upton's certainly faster than that: His 36 steals are second to Jacoby Ellsbury's atop the AL.

Maddon also benched Upton, batting .214 in his last 10 games, on Saturday.

"We tried everything we could. We've tried bringing up different people. We've tried changing pitching coaches. I think what we've seen as a result of rushing these kids and putting them in situations they're probably not ready for is that what they had success with down on that level, they don't get by with up on this level. I was in hopes of seeing some improvement, but now that I look back on it, what we've seen is to be expected."

The Patriots signed 16-year pro John Lynch to a one-year deal last week, bolstering their secondary with the first-ever pitcher in Florida Marlins history.

Honest.

Lynch pitched for two seasons at Stanford while also playing football, well enough that Florida took him in the second round of their first-ever draft in 1992. Assigned to the Marlins' inaugural farm team, the Erie (Pa.) Sailors of the Single-A New York-Penn League, Lynch started their first-ever game that June 15.

"More than 3,500 fans turned out, filling a ballpark that does not satisfy the minimal requirements Major League Baseball has set for affiliated minor league clubs," USA Today reported. "Players, for example, dress in an adjacent middle school."

The Sailors ended up relocating at the end of the next season, but Lynch was long gone by then. He returned to Stanford in August, exercising a stipulation in his contract that he could play his senior season of football.

Two games into his 1993 season with the Kane County (Ill.) Cougars, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers drafted Lynch. Nine Pro Bowls and a Super Bowl ring later, his 1-3 professional record is a distant memory.

Jon Couture covers the Red Sox for The Standard-Times. Contact him at jcouture@s-t.com